Iago
Iago is the secondary antagonist in Disney's 1992 animated feature film, Aladdin. He is a loud-mouthed and sarcastic parrot that served as Jafar's henchman during the latter's attempt to rule Agrabah. Iago's primary obsessions are riches and fame, which—coupled with his hatred for the Sultan's crackers—motivated his villainous acts. Iago's role expanded significantly over the course of the franchise. The most notable example is the 1994 direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar, in which Iago reformed and joined Aladdin and Jasmine as an anti-hero. Personality Iago is amongst the most complex characters to originate from a Disney animated feature film. When first introduced as the loyal follower of Jafar, he appears to be just as evil and cruel as his superior—being uncaring, murderous, deceitful, and cunning. However, Iago is the more aggressive of the two, as well as the more vocal and easily-frustrated. He has a difficult time keeping his opinions to himself, and has a habit of shouting and ranting on about his annoyances, when things don't go as planned. Voice Actors *Andrew Leago Trivia *Iago was originally meant to be a snobbish parrot with a British accent. However, to further the comedy, his character was changed drastically to what animator Will Finn calls "Gilbert Gottfried as a parrot". *Iago was, at one point, to be voiced by Danny DeVito, but he was unavailable. DeVito would later be the voice of Phil in Hercules, also directed by John Musker and Ron Clements. *According to actor Jonathan Freeman (Jafar), the original idea was that Iago would sound like Jafar, meaning that Jonathan would have to play the two characters. However, the people at Disney changed their mind. *Jafar mentions that he bought Iago from the bazaar; it's never made fully clear whether Iago was capable of coherent speech before being purchased or whether magical experiments made him so. *Iago is the first villain in Disney history to lastingly reform in a production other than his debut film. Among the few other characters to have this distinction are Anastasia Tremaine from Cinderella and Gantu from Lilo & Stitch. *Iago claimed in Return of Jafar that he had a wife and three unhatched eggs. However, as this was meant to be a desperate plea to get Abu to unlock the cage, it's unknown if Iago was being honest about it or not. It's likely he was lying, as he later gets a love interest in the TV show. *In the episode "When Chaos Comes Calling", Iago's head turns into that of his voice actor Gilbert Gottfried. **In the same episode, Iago mentions that he's claustrophobic. *While in service to Jafar, Iago proved to be one of the more competent henchman: he successfully retrieved the lamp for Jafar after easily tricking Aladdin by mimicking Jasmine's voice, he came up with a number of excellent schemes for Jafar to seize power, and despite his comedic demeanor, he did not display (at least in the first film) any signs of genuine stupidity, despite getting injured from time to time, and he can also be rather sadistic, as he suggested murdering the Sultan and Jasmine in the event that Jafar would manage to marry her, namely "drop them off a cliff." *In the episode "Do the Rat Thing", when Iago was a lizard, his appearance resembled Frank the lizard from The Rescuers Down Under. *In the Castillian Spanish version, he speaks with a Mexican accent because his voice actor was born in Mexico. *In the episode "Moonlight Madness", Iago was said to have a cousin named Jeff. *Gilbert Gottfried's role as Iago was highlighted in the 2015 documentary Life, Animated, which centered on the real story of Owen Suskind, a man with autism. After four years of not being able to communicate with his family, Owen's father took an Iago puppet and approached Owen while doing an impression of Gilbert. Owen recognized the Iago puppet as an "old friend" (as Aladdin was amongst his favorite Disney movies, and Iago was amongst his favorite Disney characters) and responded. This would allow Owen and his family to build on Owen's communication skills. *In some early concept art, Iago is named as 'Sinbad'. Category:Characters